"At the moment you've got an extraordinarily large number of people, very much larger than we had to deal with, seeking to access Australia through people smugglers, and you need to use all of the weapons in your armoury if you're going to be able to deal with it."

Talking turkey

Mr Abbott repeated his refusal to talk to the Government without a written proposal today, but also repeated that he would be willing to talk if Mr Bowen came up with concrete suggestions.

He told Macquarie Radio he was not ruling out working on Christmas Day.

"I'm happy to spend it negotiating on this issue if the Government is prepared to put a specific proposal forward," Mr Abbott said.

"My holidays are not as important as sorting this out but we can only sort it out if the Government is prepared to take a position."

Despite mounting pressure, Mr Bowen says that is not going to happen.

"Our preferred option is simply to sit in a room and work it through together," he told ABC News 24.

"I'm happy to have turkey with Tony Abbott on Christmas, but first we've got to talk turkey."

Free trade is the oldest argument in federal politics and the issue that literally defined the federation era but opposition exists to the TPP, courtesy of the Investor-State Dispute Resolutions clause.